The best Finn sailor in the world is British, yet on the evidence of the
results at Skandia Sail for Gold so far this week, his name is Giles Scott
and not the three-times Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie.

Golden boy: GB Finn sailor Ben Ainslie has won three Olympic gold medals but has struggled to compete with compatriot Giles Scott this week at the Skandia Sail for GoldPhoto: GETTY IMAGES

In blustery conditions at Weymouth, Ainslie. who won selection over Scott last September after a series of Olympic trials, has struggled to overcome his British rival, who at 24 is 10 years younger, suffering four defeats to his heir apparent before pipping him to the post in the final race on Wednesday.

Little significance is being attached to the defeats since Ainslie, who is said to be under the weather with a virus, is still likely to win his fourth gold medal at London 2012 in August and enter the history books as the most successful Olympic sailor in history.

He remains one of the most feared competitors on the race track and despite his illness, is lying in second place, trailing Scott, who also beat him at the Finn Nationals last month, by eight points with four races and the medal finale on Saturday still to go.

It was a shame that countries could only have one representative per Olympic class, said American Zach Railey, who won silver in the Finn class at Beijing and is lying third at Skandia Sail for Gold.

“Giles is incredibly talented and Ben is an incredible talent but Ben won the trials so he deserves to go the Olympics,” he said.

“It’s a tough situation but that’s how the Olympics work. Even if Giles were sailing for another country Ben would be favourite to win gold. He has won three gold medals and a silver and you can’t take away from his track record at the Olympic Games.”

After misreading conditions on Tuesday, Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson hit their straps on Wednesday in the 18-knot breeze to rise to the top of the leaderboard in the Star class.

Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark dropped from first to third in the 470 Women’s class and Dave Evans and Ed Powys also dropped two places in the 49er class while Team GB’s Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes had a greatly improved day with a win and two seconds to climb to fourth.

Strong winds are forecast for Thursday and Friday with racing brought forward by an hour this morning to escape the worse of the 30-knot plus conditions and the penultimate day’s programme on Friday in doubt.